Pouring Acid On An ATM Will Not Get You Access To The Cash Inside

It must be so tempting for the criminally minded to know that there are boxes filled with money on just about every corner of the non-residential areas of this great nation. One man in Colorado had a brilliant scheme to crack open an ATM on the CU-Boulder campus. The only thing he succeeded in doing was injuring a student who later used the ATM. Oh, and destroying the machine.

The chemical, which police haven’t yet identified, ruined the machine enough to make it unusable, but didn’t ruin it enough to get the man access to its sweet, cash-filled center. Police report that he checked back on the machine twice, presumably to find out whether the acid had dissolved the machine sufficiently. It never did, but it did also bleach the concrete below the machine.

Since it’s the off-season on college campuses, no one noticed the chemical contamination for almost a week. Six days later, a student went to use the ATM and sustained a chemical burn. Fortunately, he wasn’t injured badly enough to need medical attention. However, the machine needs to be replaced. Police say that a new ATM will cost about $50,000.